It is rare that I see a commercial that actually makes me want to act on it. But a couple of months ago, I found that with Viggle. That isn’t to say I immediately acted on it. I saw the commercial probably a dozen times before I finally signed up. The 5000 point sign up bonus currently offered to DirecTV subscribers probably helped.
Viggle has apparently been around for about a year, but they’ve been making a big push recently with their partnership with DirecTV. How they work is you use their smartphone app to earn points for various TV related tasks. These points can be redeemed for a variety of rewards from a $5 gift card to Starbucks or Barnes & Noble (no Amazon unfortunately) to a Royal Caribbean cruise.
I will admit, the cruise seems like one of those over-the-top prizes to lure people into not redeeming their points in hopes of earning enough for a free cruise. Kind of like the ill-fated Burma Shave promotion where a million jars won a trip to Mars. Unlike the entrepreneurial shop keeper that bought back customers empty jars to claim the prize (they sent him to Mars, Germany), you can’t share your Viggle points with another. Since it take four million points to get the cruise, you will have to watch a lot of TV!
Ways to Earn with Viggle
Check into Shows
The bread and butter of Viggle is checking into shows as you watch them. When you tap the “check in” button, the app listens to your tv through the phone’s microphone for about 10 seconds to determine what show or movie is on. It only works with dialogue; it failed with the theme songs for NCIS and Big Bang Theory. Action scenes, or a lot of background noise will also cause the audio recognition to fail. Don’t worry. If it fails to recognize the show after three tries, it will let you enter the name of the show manually.
Once you are checked in, you will earn 1 point per minute until the show ends or you check into something else. Special shows will also have promotions for extra points. Anyone watching the March Madness tournament and checks into at least one game each day will earn 1000 bonus points.
If you watch shows on your DVR, it may still work. After accidentally missing half of Big Bang Theory on Thursday we went back to watch it on the DVR after finishing our other Thursday shows of Vampire Diaries, Beauty & the Beast, and Glee. I tried checking in just to see if it would work. Not only was I able to check in, I was able to do some of the trivia questions as well!
Trivia quizes
On certain prime-time shows, there is a trivia quiz available. Once every roughly 3 minutes throughout the show, there will be another question. Get it right, and get 10 points. Get it wrong, and you still get 1 point.
Watch Commercials
Occasionally the Viggle app will ask you to watch a commerical. These commericals are 30 seconds long, like on tv, and are worth anywhere from 5 to 50 points.
Special Offers
Like every other company that offers rewards points these days, Viggle has an “Offer Wall” of special offers. Complete them and you get large numbers of points. Of course, those offers cost money, and more money then you earn through Viggle. So this isn’t something I do, although if I’m going to be buying something anyway, I will always check all of the places that have “special offers” to see if I can get a reward for it.
V-Gifts
Every so often, in addition to points earned for watching a show you will receive a “V-gift” from Viggle. These are usually some sort of coupon, like 50% off at Papa Johns.
How to get started with Viggle
To get started, you can download the app from the iTunes or Google Play store. From there, you can sign up for an account letting them know your cable/satellite provider and zip code so they know what shows are playing when you check in. Then you are ready start earning rewards for something you would be doing anyway!
Do you use Viggle? How much TV do you watch?
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